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SPORTS PERFORMANCE & TECH APRIL 2016 | #20
NFL
acknowledges link between football and brain damage | 12
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Can Sport Ever Escape From Doping? The world has been plagued by doping in sport over the last few years, what does it mean for the future? | 6
Have The Boston Red Sox Relied on Analytics at The Expense of Insights? Sabremetrics has created some impressive results in recent years, but are they concentrating on data too much at Fenway Park? | 17
Wearable Tech in Sport Summit November 9 & 10 2016 | Amsterdam
Speakers Include
Contact Details Sean Foreman
+44 207 193 1655 sforeman@theiegroup.com www.theinnovationenterprise.com
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ISSUE 20
EDITOR’S LETTER Welcome to the 20th Edition of the Sports Performance & Tech Magazine
People can argue that sport is not important, that it is something that wastes time, money and energy that could be better spent elsewhere. However, for billions of people around the world it is their religion, more important than almost anything else in the world.
of the people who pay them so handsomely and to the very sport in which they compete. We have seen how the actions of people like Lance Armstrong, Maria Sharapova and Tiger Woods have had a significant impact on the world further than just their own relationships.
It is why we can almost universally condemn the investment bankers who get paid a fraction of sportspeople, yet the wages of Wayne Rooney (£300,000 per week) are more an object of jealousy than outright anger. However, with the huge rewards comes huge responsibilities, and this issue looks at two ways in which athletes have duties above and beyond simply playing or winning at their sport.
Each, in their own right, deserves the stigma that has been given to them, but the true impact of their actions is on the future of their sport and the ways in which the media report on it. In each scandal, the media - especially tabloid media - have hounded athletes relentlessly, creating a circus around the personal lives of athletes and calling the validity of strong performances into question.
In this issue, one of the key themes is the importance of athlete behaviour to the millions of fans around the world, to the image
Athletes have a duty, not just to their fans and teams but to the future of their sports. Those who overlook this duty deserve our scorn, but we
need to make sure that we aren’t trying to tar everybody with their tainted brush. This issue looks at some of these issues, from the reasons behind sponsors dropping their athletes through to the way that doping undermines every performance following its discovery. As the capabilities of technology and new training techniques improve, as they have done over the past 5 years, we should see performances above and beyond what we expect. After all isn’t that the reason that billions of people watch sport in the first place?
George Hill managing editor
sports performance & tech
Sports Analytics Innovation Summit Speakers Include
San Francisco August 23 & 24 2016 Contact Details Sean Foreman
+1 415 692 5514
sforeman@theiegroup.com www.theinnovationenterprise.com
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contents 6 | CAN SPORT EVER ESCAPE FROM DOPING?
The world has been plagued by doping in sport over the last few years, what does it mean for the future? 10 | NAPOLI’S DRONE-ASSISTED DEFENSE
After some poor results, the Italian soccer team used drones to make sure their defensive shape was working 12 | NFL ACKNOWLEDGES LINK BETWEEN FOOTBALL AND BRAIN DAMAGE
After years of denials, the link has been established, but what does it mean for the future of the game? 14 | WHEN SPORTS SPONSORS DROP THEIR CLIENTS
17 | HAVE THE BOSTON RED SOX RELIED ON ANALYTICS AT THE EXPENSE OF INSIGHTS?
Sabermetrics has created some impressive results in recent years, but are they concentrating on data too much at Fenway Park? 20 | THE BODY ANALYTICS REVOLUTION TRANSFORMING BASKETBALL
Wearable tech and biometric data is impacting basketball at all levels and allowing new player insights 22 | CHARLES REEP: FOOTBALL ANALYTICS FOUNDING FATHER
Although often overlooked, a former RAF Wing Commander may have been the founder of modern soccer data collection
We investigate how and why sponsors drop athletes and why athletes forfeit millions in endorsements
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managing editor george hill
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contributors william tubbs, euan hunter, sean foreman
sports performance & tech
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CAN SPORT EVER ESCAPE FROM DOPING? Sean Foreman, Sports Technology Evangelist
sports performance & tech
The sporting world has taken some considerable hits in the last few years from doping and it has become a constant unwanted narrative for many.
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IT HAS THROWN SOME OF THE WORLD'S most popular athletes from their perches and tainted everything associated with them. Lance Armstrong did not only let down his team and sponsors, but all of the millions of fans who looked up to him. Although the full extent of Maria Sharapova's use of performance enhancing substances is yet to become clear, it has already damaged her image, those associated with her and all of the young tennis players who look up to her. However, the damage done to fans, sponsors and friends is nothing compared to the damage that doping has done to sports and national reputations. Russian and Kenyan athletes are now looked at suspiciously if they perform well after the WADA findings about their widespread use of performing enhancing drugs, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Every time a cyclist performs amazing feats it is instantly put down to doping; you only have to look at the way that Chris Froome was abused for his performance at the Tour de France last year as a prime example.
sports performance & tech
8 This is where the real damage of doping lies, in the fact that once it has been found once or twice, it throws every performance before and after into question. It is one thing that Tim Kerrison, Head of Athlete Performance at Team Sky, constantly needs to contend with as he attempts to drive the cyclists under his care to new levels of performance. The major issue that comes with this is that the better he does his job without using doping products, the more accusations are thrown at the members of Team Sky about doping. However, although this is, to some extent, detrimental to the riders on the road (Chris Froome has had urine thrown at him, which is bound to be slightly off-putting) Tim, in a recent interview with the Telegraph, is clear in his belief that athletes have not yet reached peak performance. He says 'I think people out there putting limits on human performance are probably not the great visionary thinkers. One thing I am very sure of is that we are not yet close to reaching those limits.'
In the doping era of cycling we didn’t necessarily see what the most talented riders were capable of in a well supported environment
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Tim even had an example of how limiting what could be achieved had impacted him in the past. When he was training the Swimmer Leisel Jones to break the 200m record he set time targets. These were achieved and the record broken in 2004, but this same record has since been broken 5 times, meaning that the time target, rather than a performance target, simply put a cap on what could have been achieved.
Team Sky, under Tim's watchful eye, have even implemented a brand new training regime to help make further improvements to their already impressive training efforts. The details of this are currently unknown, but so far the results seem to be good. Geraint Thomas, Team Sky's second leader behind Chris Froome, won the Paris-Nice stage race ahead of many of the best riders in the world after using it.
One of the key things that he talks about is how the use of doping may have actually hindered athletes from achieving what they potentially could have if they had been properly supported. 'In the doping era of cycling we didn’t necessarily see what the most talented riders were capable of in a well supported environment. The focus of supporting and developing riders was through doping. I expect performances in the post-doping era to progress faster than some might expect.'
To think that we are at the peak of athletic performance today is simple minded and verging on arrogant, but with the doping scandals that have engulfed so many sports, any major improvements threaten to be tainted. The world record for the 100m sprint has been broken 11 times in the past 20 years, the hour record in cycling was broken 8 times between 2014-2015 and the 200m breaststroke has been broken 10 times in 10 years. These show that there are always marginal gains to be found, which when combined, add to phenomenal performance improvements. However, unless doping in sport is eradicated, there will always be doubts of these performances, regardless of how squeaky clean athletes really are and how good drug detection becomes.
Business in Sport Summit Speakers Include
Austin May 19 & 20 2016 Contact Details Sean Foreman
+1 415 692 5514
sforeman@theiegroup.com www.theinnovationenterprise.com
10 Charlie Sammonds, Assistant Editor
Napoli's Drone-Assisted Defense The manager employs a drone to fly overhead during training to record his side’s formation; defensive organization is better seen from above
sports performance & tech
WHEN MAURIZIO Sarri arrived in Naples in the summer of 2015 he inherited a defense that was, for want of a better word, broken. The Partenopei shipped 54 Serie A goals in the 2014/15 campaign, condemning them to a fifthplace finish and life in the Europa League. Fast forward nine months, and Napoli has the second-best defensive record in Serie A, only bettered by league leaders Juventus - and, frankly, Gianluigi Buffon and co. are frighteningly impenetrable at the back.
With 11 clean sheets from 28 league games, goalkeeper Pepe Reina has felt the ignominy of picking the ball out of his net far less often than Rafael Cabra last time around. In their Europa League campaign, Napoli have let in just five goals in eight games and are looking one of Europe's fiercest defenses. The side now move as a collective, and understanding in the back four is the best it's been this decade in Naples. In fact, only Bayern Munich have made fewer defensive actions (tackles, clearances, blocks) than the Italian side - don't take this as an indictment of a defense that isn't working, for the most organized back lines are rarely called into
11 action. The improvement has Napoli just three points behind Juventus; for reference, they finished a massive 24 points behind the Old Lady last term.
Elevation offers a far better perspective; the touchline means an almost 2D look at formation and the use of drones gives further choice of vantage, one that is more conducive to defensive organization
The secret to their change in fortunes? In part, a technique imported from Sarri's days at Empoli: a drone. The manager employs a drone to fly overhead during training to record his side's formation; defensive organization is better seen from above. It's often questioned why managers don't move up into the stands during games, and some do (before they're dragged back down to the touchline to berate their players). Elevation offers a far better perspective; the touchline means an almost 2D look at formation and the use of drones gives further choice of vantage, one that is more conducive to defensive organization. Sarri will take each player aside individually after the sessions for analysis, telling them how slight adjustments to their positioning - for overhaul is no way to plug a porous defense - can improve defensive solidity as a whole. And it's paid off. Everton, too, have been using drones to film training at their Finch Farm academy. The Toffees' Roberto Martinez is a modern manager in every sense, from his CataloniaLiverpudlian accent to his willingness to innovate tactically, and it comes as no surprise that he is well on top of technological advancements. The club's fortunes this season haven't been great, but for all his hyperbole - he once described Gareth Barry as 'one of the best English players ever' - many in the footballing world hold admiration for the 42-year-old's techniques. His pursuit for perfection has, in part, been his undoing this season, but that's a story for another day. According to Michael Owen, whose M7 Aerial company create
drones for use in football, 'a lot of teams now are using this drone technology to go up and film training sessions so you can then literally say to people you're in the wrong position, you should be covering.' A British man was fined in 2015 for illegally flying drones over professional football stadiums during games, but it seems only a matter of time before drones are allowed inside the grounds, either as versatile mobile cameras for television broadcasters or as tactical aids. Having said that, team shape will soon be mappable thanks to the use of player trackers which, as they become more sophisticated, will be deemed more appropriate for match day and implemented duly. But drones are an effective method for now, as they give a more organic look at formation than trackers and an honest picture of what the opposition are doing in response to the tactical formation being deployed. The use of drones reflects a snowballing trend toward more intelligent analysis of football training sessions. Technology, like Catapult's tracking devices, allows coaches to receive and manipulate information in real-time, on everything from a player's average speed to their recovery time following an exertion. Don't expect to see training grounds aswarm with drones, developments in wearable tech will likely surpass a drone's capabilities, but Sarri should be recognized for his commitment to tech and the seemingly miraculous results.
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NFL ACKNOWLEDGES LINK BETWEEN FOOTBALL AND BRAIN DAMAGE George Hill, Managing Editor
The average weight of NFL Nose Tackles is 322 lbs. Include the weight of their equipment and that’s a considerable force enacted on any player unlucky enough to get in their way.
THE NFL HAS A DIFFICULT HISTORY with complications caused by injury. And, in the clearest admission to date, the NFL’s chief health and safety official, Jeff Miller, acknowledged the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease found in dozens of retired players. In a round table discussion on Capitol Hill, Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, questioned Miller on whether ‘there is a link between football and degenerative brain disorders like CTE’, to which the official answered: ‘The answer to that is certainly, yes.’ Miller went on to note his lack of a medical background but admitted that studies had been conclusive, constituting the first recorded admission of the link by an NFL official. The NFL has been very careful with its handling of the matter in the past, for which Schakowsky accused football’s governing
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13 body of having a ‘very troubling track record of denying and discrediting scientific enquiry into the risks of playing football.’ In 2009, a spokesperson from the NFL told The New York Times that is was ‘quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems’. The league then stepped back, choosing to allow the medical community to make advancements in their research before taking an official stance, and the acknowledgment then took a further seven years to arrive. CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously, by identifying a build up of a tau protein in parts of the brain. And the question is not one of whether the link exists, but of its prevalence. Even prior to the confirmation, the NFL have been dealing with settlements compensating former players. In 2013, the governing body was forced to pay out $765 million to thousands of retired players and their families, following their claims that playing professional football left them with brain damage. The cost - less than 0.5% of the NFL’s annual revenue - is a small price for the sport to pay given the severity of the claims and the potential impact of the damage caused. Forbes described the payment, which equals about $20,000 per year for 20 years per player, as a huge victory for the NFL given the potential outlay faced. Even then, though, the NFL did not admit any guilt, and the recent admission is a positive step forward, with the conversation set to change from the debate regarding the link’s existence, to the possible solutions to a life-endangering problem.
There are steps than can be taken to limit concussions and subsequent complications. The likes of Reebok and Battle are producing ‘head impact sensors’ which fit inside the helmets of players and can relay the severity of an impact to the touchline, to be assessed by the medical staff. Helmets with inbuilt technology have been in development for years, but the NFL’s admission may see their development and eventual implementation fast-tracked. The technology has not avoided controversy, though, as headsets that are faulty or dangerously insensitive could give players and medical teams a damaging false sense of security. Principally, they do not diagnose concussion or other head injuries, and will need to be used as a tool in the wider assessment of a player’s condition, rather than a system to be relied on. Taking a slightly different approach, companies like VICIS are developing helmets not built to detect dangerous collisions, but to avoid them. Founded by a paediatric neurosurgeon - Sam Browd - with all too much experience of ‘retiring’ children from football as a result of early head injuries, VICIS are launching their Zero1 helmet that ‘buckles’ to reduce the risk of damage. According to Browd, the helmets currently in use were never developed with concussion in mind, rather they inhibit the possibility of skull fracture, haemorrhages and other more immediately serious injuries. And Browd’s purpose-built helmet will take time to introduce, if indeed they prove to be a better safety helmet. The process that new equipment must go through
In 2013, the governing body was forced to pay out $765 million to thousands of retired players and their families, following their claims that playing professional football left them with brain damage before being used in competition is extensive, and includes independent assessment as well as rigorous testing. The price tag also far exceeds that of standard helmets, coming in at $1,500 rather than between $150 and $400, as is standard. The solutions may be, at present, imperfect, but concussion has never been so entrenched in the NFL’s safety considerations. Regarding the creation and implementation of new technology, as well as training techniques that could reduce a player’s likelihood of head injury, the NFL would be wise to support such schemes to avoid further hits to both their reputation and their chequebook.
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When Sports Sponsors drop thier clients
William Tubbs, Head of Sports Channel, Innovation Enterprise sports performance & tech
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When the matter of professional athletes’ pay is brought up in conversation, it is generally met with bewildered disdain.
THE MONEY FLYING around in soccer, boxing, golf and tennis makes for some incredibly deep pockets, and the perceived ‘easy’ lifestyle of the beneficiaries does little to assuage public opinion. And there is a morbid fascination with the riches paid to sportspeople; a ticker created by the Mirror displays Wayne Rooney’s earnings in realtime and prompts the visitor to offer their own wages for comparison. Tiger Woods - sensationally dropped from many of his endorsement deals in 2010 following the public admittance and apology regarding his prolific infidelity is once again incredibly well-endorsed. In the year from June 2014 to June 2015, Woods earned $600,000 from sporting competition but, according to Forbes, raked in $50 million in sponsorship deals. Usain Bolt, similarly, earned $15,000 in the same period from winning races, but brought in a mammoth $21 million from sponsorships. These are special cases of course, but even the highest paid sportsmen on earth will see sponsorship contribute significantly to their incomes. Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, supplements his $52 million salary with a cool $27 million from sponsors. These incredibly profitable partnerships are occasionally dropped, and not thanks to underperformance on the field, in the ring, at the track, on the court and so on; they are more regularly abandoned following an ignominy in the athlete’s private lives. And these damaging revelations tend to follow the same pattern; exposure is met with disgust and that disgust is sidestepped by companies who immediately look to distance themselves from the activity in question by withdrawing their sponsorship.
Lance Armstrong was supported by Nike for 16 years. Image Credit: John Kershner sports performance & tech
16 There are plenty of high-profile examples of companies condemning the activity of their clients. Going back to Wayne Rooney, one of English football’s most marketable players, was alleged to have been cheating on his wife Coleen in 2009/10, with prostitutes. The saga was lengthy, but Coca-Cola wasted no time, claiming they were ‘disgusted’ by the alleged infidelity and immediately dropped the goalscorer from their advertising campaigns. Interestingly, it seems disgust is subjective, as the likes of Nike and EA Sports declared it a ‘private’ matter, and their stance on Rooney as an ambassador for their brand was unchanged. Alleged infidelity is, of course, not a brilliant imagine for a brand to be aligned with. But, worse still, are overtly uncomfortable political views. Tyson Fury is wonderful in the ring. His triumph over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 captured the imagination thanks to the chalk and cheese nature of the competitors, but his expression outside of the ring has been problematic to say the least. Fury made frankly abhorrent comments regarding homosexuality and abortion, comparing them to paedophilia and denouncing their legalization. Perhaps dispiritingly, his comments received little in the way of official condemnation. A petition to have him removed from the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award nominee list was ultimately unsuccessful and he lost no sponsors. And in the world of sports scandal, very few things unite the world in condemnation like doping. It is ingrained in supporters that cheating is wrong, particularly when it is not immediately evident, and sport’s uncomfortable relationship with fixing and corruption makes the rallying against dopers understandable. Doping also invariably results in the loss of sponsorship. Maria Sharapova is the most recent to be publicly shamed, following a
sports performance & tech
doping scandal made only slightly more palatable thanks to her apparent lack of responsibility in the decision to cheat. Lance Armstrong is probably the most well-known example, though; the once-legendary cyclist was left by eight sponsors within 12 hours of the story breaking in 2012, with Nike - a supported of Armstrong since 1996 - the first to break away. The financial impact of this was not lost on him ‘I’ve certainly lost all future income…You could look at the day and a half where people left. I don’t like thinking about it. But that was a…I don’t know. That was a $75 million day.’
in the world of sports scandal, very few things unite the world in condemnation like doping
Generally, though, there is a lack of consistency among brands regarding what they deem as indefensible. The effect of scandals on sponsorship effectiveness is as difficult to quantify as the effect of sponsorship itself, and scandals by no means see sports stars struggling to pay the bills. The pedestal that sports stars are placed on makes for the ferocious reaction to scandal; sports sponsorship will continue to put millions into the pockets of individuals, providing they watch what they tweet in future.
Armstrong was once left by
17 Euan Hunter, Sports Analytics Industry Commentator:
have the boston red sox relied on Analytics at the expense of insights?
THE BOSTON RED SOX have been one of the leading champions of data analytics in the MLB over the past twenty years. However, having placed last in the AL East three out of the past four seasons, it seems they are starting to reconsider their approach. Following his evaluation of last season’s failure, Red Sox owner John Henry even went so far as to say ‘I think we were reliant too heavily on analytics.’ He continued, ’I spent at least two months looking under the hood and I came to the conclusion we needed to make some changes. One of the things we've done — and I'm fully accountable for this — is we have perhaps overly relied on numbers and there were a whole host of things.’
Henry came to the Red Sox having built his fortune making data-driven decisions with hedge funds, and he was quick to apply similar methods to baseball, using the now infamous sabermetrics first put into practice successfully by Billy Beane’s Oakland Athletic. The Red Sox has one of
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Red Sox owner John Henry even went so far as to say ‘I think we were reliant too heavily on analytics.’
the founders of sabermetrics, Bill James, in their front office, and they have invested heavily in analytics throughout their staff with significant success. Analytics was the driving force behind their first World Series win in 86 years in 2004, and their two subsequent victories in 2007 and 2013. Last season was, however, a nightmare. The Red Sox brought in two high-priced free agents — Pablo Sandoval for five years at $95 million and Hanley Ramirez for four years at $88 million - both of whom flopped. According to ESPN, the Red Sox had the 12th worst record in baseball last season, as they went 78-84. The Red Sox has won the World Series three times using sabermetrics, so to say that it has not served them well would be wrong. Other teams using the system are also still seeing success, so Henry’s statement will clearly not herald a move away from analytics. ESPN’s the Great Analytics Rankings ranked MLB teams by how much they were investing in analytics and placed them in five tiers, ranging from All In to Nonbelievers. The 2015 MLB playoff contenders consisted of five teams in the ‘All In’ tier (Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, and Astros), four teams in the ‘Believers’ tier (Royals, Blue Jays, sports performance & tech
Dodgers, and Mets), and one team in the ‘One Foot In’ tier (Rangers). The continued success of other MLB teams who rely heavily on analytics suggest that it is not suddenly wrong, simply that the Red Sox are using it wrong. Brian Kenny, an MLB Network host who champions the analytics revolution, disagrees with Henry’s appraisal that analytics were responsible. ‘I’m perplexed as to how analytics was a reason for the Red Sox’ problems,’ Kenny said. ‘Sabermetrics is about evidence, not merely data. A proper reading of analytics would tell you that Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval were erratic performers and risky investments. A proper reading of Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts would tell you they would be good major league players even if not on their desired timetable. I think the enemy of the Red Sox is impatience, not analytics.’ The simple truth is that the Red Sox were initially so successful because they were an early adopter. However, other teams are now using the same methods - and they’re
using them better. The key is to use analytics in the right way, and not simply keep plugging away with the same working processes because they have worked before. The same is true in business. There needs to be a balance struck between how much you rely on the data in every industry, and finding this balance is one of the deciding factors as to whether you’re successful. The Red Sox have got this right in the past, and they can get it right again. In a relatively young disciple like analytics, with fast evolving tools and new theories arising every day, companies need to constantly update their analytical processes. The Red Sox won’t be abandoning analytics - in fact they’re investing more heavily - but it is likely they will have to completely rethink how they use it and put more of an onus back on using people to make sense of the data, rather than letting the data rule completely. Red Sox President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski, who was appointed in August 2015, comes from a very traditional scouting worldview, and is therefore likely to assign a different weight to types of information than his predecessor Ben Cherington.
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Wearable Tech in Sports Summit Speakers Include
San Francisco August 23 & 24 2016 Contact Details Sean Foreman
+1 415 692 5514
sforeman@theiegroup.com www.theinnovationenterprise.com sports performance & tech
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The Body Analytics Revolution Transforming Basketball Euan Hunter, Sports Analytics Industry Commentator
Teams can examine every aspect of a player in the draft to weed out those who are likely to be injury prone, while players can use analytics to tweak aspects of their training and on-court style to help them reach their peak physical condition
sports performance & tech
The last three NBA champions have all been open in their adoption of data analytics techniques. Last season’s final between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers saw two teams face off who have heavily incorporated data analysis into how they play the game, and there are now very few who are resistant to its domination. Except maybe Charles Barkley, who called it ‘crap’, and argued that proponents of analytics are ‘a bunch of guys who ain't never played the game [and] they never got the girls in high school.’ Which doesn’t seem like a wholly fair appraisal. Using data analytics, coaches have been able to glean a number of insights around the most effective and efficient ways to play the game,
such as where best to shoot from, how long a player should hold onto the ball, and which way an opponent is most likely to pass. One of the most important areas that analytics is aiding is measuring every aspect of a player’s physique. Teams can examine every aspect of a player in the draft to weed out those who are likely to be injury prone, while players can use analytics to tweak aspects of their training and on-court style to help them reach their peak physical condition. This also enables players to carry on way past what would once have been considered their sell-by date. Basketball players, perhaps more than any other sport, are physically unique specimens - tall, fast, strong,
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P3 assesses players on how their bodies are affected by a number of movements using high-tech force plates embedded in the floor and cameras shooting from multiple angles and capable of jumping ludicrous heights. Milwaukee Bucks’ 21 year old short forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, for example, is 6’11, 222b, with a wingspan of 7-foot-3. His achilles tendon, which runs from the back of the heel to the belly of the calf, is 13.5 inches - almost double the length of the average adult male’s. During the 2013-14 season, Commissioner Adam Silver, who has been one of analytics biggest champions, announced that the league was partnering with Stats LLC to install SportVU player-tracking cameras in every arena, helping to measure player speed, distance traveled and acceleration. Perhaps more importantly, in 2014 Silver hired a sports science institute called
P3 Applied Sports Science to modernize the league's draft combine. P3 assesses players on how their bodies are affected by a number of movements using high-tech force plates embedded in the floor and cameras shooting from multiple angles. These feed data into laptops, which are then analyzed to pinpoint problems that could see players physically breakdown in the future, and steps can then be taken to overcome these. P3 founder, Dr. Marcus Elliott, says P3 asks not just how high do you jump but also how do you land and how high and how quickly can you jump a second time. So, for example, a player who lands on his right leg with disproportionately more force than his left may be doing so because of a weakness in his left ankle. Such insights are already being utilized by major players like LeBron James, who has adapted his game at Cleveland in order to prolong his career. However, the human body is an incredibly complex thing, and anything could happen. As Ryan Podell, Sports Scientist at Portland Trail Blazers, notes: ‘The biggest challenge sports science practitioners face today, and will continue to struggle with, is the fact that the human body is dynamic in its truest essence. We are trying to identify key variables that influence performance and injury mechanisms within such a fluid subject, the human body. It's the equivalent of trying to determine what picture a 10,000 piece puzzle forms, while only have a limited number of pieces to look at.’
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Charles Reep
football analytics’ founding father
Reep would go on to record and draw analysis from 2,200 games, up until the mid-1990s
Charlie Sammonds, Assistant Editor IN MARCH 1950, Swindon Town beat Bristol Rovers by the perhaps uninspiring scoreline of 1-0 at the County Ground. The win was one of just 15 managed by Louis Page’s side that season as they went on to finish 14th - a disappointing return having hit the heights of fourth in the preceding campaign. As thousands of fans grew frustrated with their side’s first-half display - the goal came in the second - one man in particular found Swindon’s pattern of failed attacks frustrating. Charles Reep, an RAF Wing Commander, grew so disillusioned with what he saw as slow, inefficient attacking play, that he decided to note down the second half’s attacks and take a look at where the side were going wrong. Jonathan Wilson, in his Inverting the Pyramid: The History Of Football Tactics, claims that Reep’s notes concluded that Swindon had 147 attacks in the second 45 minutes. ‘Extrapolating this, and
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assuming 280 attacks per game and an average of two goals scored, [Reep] realized this equated to a failure rate of 99.29 per cent, which meant that an improvement of only 0.71 per cent was necessary for a side to average three goals a game.’ Reep would go on to record and draw analysis from 2,200 games, up until the mid-1990s. His findings - which, anecdotally, saw him sometimes jot down information on rolls of wallpaper - concluded (wrongly) that moves consisting of three or less passes were more likely to result in a goal than longer passing plays. ‘He argued that wingers should remain as high up the pitch as they could while remaining onside, almost on the touchline, waiting for long balls out of defence’ Wilson wrote. The primitive findings are credited with the invention of, and continued fascination with, the English long-ball game.
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From Swindon’s inability to effectively deploy their wingers to Manchester City’s current 11 strong analytics team, the machine set in motion by Reep’s findings has become something few could ever have imagined
The strategy has been debunked since, with Wilson one of Reep’s most brutal detractors. Him and his disciples have been criticized for a perceived misinterpretation of data, as well as a wilful ignorance of essentially all other factors that influence the outcome of a particular football match. Why should a tactic that bore fruit in December in Grimsby be applicable to a fixture between Real Zaragoza and Real Gijon in the Spanish Segunda Division? Fundamentalism is as damaging in football as anywhere, Wilson concludes, but what is important is what Reep attempted, rather than what he achieved. The thought behind his analysis birthed the concept that - as neatly put by Bernard Marr - ‘past performance could be a good indicator of future performance and that the collection of data can aid with the recreation of past situations that led to successful outcomes.’ Since Reep’s findings, evangelists have taken his mentality on board to create successful
sides from characteristically limited resources - from Dynamo Kyiv and the USSR’s celebrated coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi to, however surprisingly, Sam Allardyce - for it is generally only the underdog that prioritizes innovation. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that analytics - in this context the use of video analysis and data to inform performance - began to catch fire in football. Prozone, founded in 1995, were the early pioneers and, 21 years on, no club worth their salt across Europe’s top leagues is without a dedicated analytics team. VHS footage of last weekend’s defeat has given way to high-quality, statistic-laden video analysis and 1.4 million data points are collected in every Premier League game. Clubs are still chasing Reep’s elusive 0.71 per cent. Objectivity has taken the place of previously accepted adages - English defenders are tough, Brazilian players are skilful, etc. - and the game itself is becoming more competitive as each side looks to squeeze more favourable data
points out of what is occasionally chaotic, always fluid competition. From Swindon’s inability to effectively deploy their wingers to Manchester City’s current 11 strong analytics team, the machine set in motion by Reep’s findings has become something few could ever have imagined. As Roberto Martinez once put it, ‘Every step on a football pitch is measured now’, and the explosion of data-influenced decision-making in not only football but sports the world over shows no signs of slowing. Data alone will never win a football match, but effective analysis of the important statistics can help clubs make informed decisions as they chase even the smallest of advantages.
sports performance & tech
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